Get to know your students with these poetry mentor texts School is starting soon in most locales of the United States and teachers are busy gearing up to find interesting. low-stakes ways to get students writing. Poetry is always a no-fail way to encourage students of all ages to get back in the swing ofContinue reading “Back to School: Four Icebreaker Poems”
Category Archives: Poetry Lessons
“Where I’m From” Poems
I’ve updated one of my most popular ELA teaching posts! The Where I’m From poem is perfect for back to school. Every teacher I know raves about this poem. Find out all about it here PLUS find templates to help you get started on day one!
Back to School Poetry: The Sometimes Poem from YA Author Kate Messner
Young adult author Kate Messner inspired one of my favorite back-to-school poetry projects for middle schoolers! I’ve updated my post about this activity for the 2021-2022 school term with updated links and a free PDF presentation to download. I hope you try this project. It’s a keeper! Click below to read the post:
Movie Captions and Text Create Unique Poems
When text passages from a novel mingle with captions or subtitles from its accompanying movie, interesting things happen. Here’s what I mean: I always watch movies with the subtitles on. It helps me catch every word of dialogue and also catch every nuance given through the sound effects.
Teaching 9/11 Twenty Years Later
If you’re needing a round-up of resources for teaching 9/11, you’re in a good place. In this post, I’ve compiled links to all my 9/11-related articles. Hopefully, one of these will give you some ideas as you make plans to remember 9/11 in your classroom this year.
“Song of Myself” Videos Make Personal Connections
And then I stumbled upon something amazing: Whitman, Alabama. This was the inspiration I needed to demonstrate the importance of Walt Whitman’s poetry in American culture today.
The Dream of the Rood: A Dream of a Poem
Last fall, as I read and planned lessons for Beowulf, “The Wanderer,” and “The Seafarer,” I kept coming across “The Dream of the Rood.” It wasn’t included in our textbook, but since I kept reading about it (and it was included in my trusty Norton anthology, after all), I became more and more curious. Fast forward: my “Dream of the Rood” close reading activity is here!
The Slice of Life Poem
Recently, it occurred to me that slice of life writing would work equally well in poetic form.
Ekphrastic Poetry Video Resources for Students
Experiment with ekphrastic poetry and infuse your English class with beautiful art. These videos will help.
Ekphrastic poem mentor texts by high school students
Use these six student-written poems as mentor texts for teaching ekphrastic poetry